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7 Feb 2014

Is Unity The Key?

On North East Board, in the thread titled: Is Unity The Key?, Derek Smith asked a question: Does AW need Unity ? and left an explanation to it.

Derek Smith: “So I was thinking about all these leagues and where the sport is heading. I feel it should be clear what the community is leaning towards. Please vote so we can see the numbers.

On one hand there is picking one of these leagues and backing it 100%. Blowing up all of their events ONLY and getting some money and sponsors to really notice our sport. Truly UNITING all of us. In the process other leagues may die out and hard work may be wasted. I believe it would draw many more new competitors to the sport if there was just ONE league they had to follow with huge numbers of entries and a large following. A sort of UFC/NBA/MLB/NFL for armwrestling. It would also be a monopoly and you would have to play by that league’s rules and hope it doesn’t lead you astray. You would be banking your time and money on the league’s ideas and leadership. So there are good and bad points, I think.

On the other hand there is having more options. Attending different events with different rules. One event in a local gymnasium may have 3 people in your weight class with a $25 gift card as first prize when you paid $30 to enter, then the very next weekend 300 miles away you could attend a tournament held at a Hooters restaurant where you could win $200 and free wings for a month. Random leagues would flare up and die out because nobody would commit to them. There would be a few good events and then it would be on to the next big thing. You have freedom of choice. You would not be contractually tied to any one organization. You can be the champion of an event with 15 entries and brag to all your buddies and call yourself a professional. There would be many more tournaments per year. It seems that this is the way it has been. I understand the pros and cons.

I understand not wanting to unite under one logo because of the risk that things could go badly..... but on the other hand it MIGHT blow this thing up. Isn’t it worth a gamble for once? Worst comes to worst we go back to being divided like always. IMO.

I’ve just been thinking about this. Please vote and share your opinions if you feel like it."

Rob Vigeant Jr's comment.:"Listen... All non promoters and people who haven't been investing have been voting unity for a bit now.

The problem is if you get 3,4,5 leagues uniting you are asking them to take a backseat and money... When it's made is gonna go to the head honcho... And they all wanna be head honcho... So no unification or forward progress"

Bob Brown's comment:"I think Unity at the amateur level in important. Like chasing the Olympics. For us, its the WAF world title. We should all get along.

But in the pro level. Competition is a good thing. Each league will try harder and harder to grow." ... Very well said Mr. Brown.

Rob Vigeant Jr and Bob Brown provided excellent answers to Derek Smith’s question and I will respond to one of Mike West’s comments in this thread.

Mike you are saying: "David, the thing is as of right now, lots of your PAL and Arm Wars champions are also WAF champions, but as a WAF champion they didn't make any $$" ... it depends from which country you are, some countries in eastern Europe pay a lot of money to medal winners. This is why the steroid problem is so huge in amateur international events: some athletes will do almost anything to win.

"It seems silly to me to think that because you beat one guy in a SM or UMU format that you are World Champion, you wanna be a World champ go beat everyone at the World championship." - IN PRO EVENTS ANYBODY CAN ORGANIZE AN EVENT AND GIVE AWAY ANY TITLE HE WANTS. THE PRO EVENTS ARE OR SHOULD BE EVENTS WHICH MAKE MONEY, GIVE A SHOW AND LET ATHLETES ALSO EARN MONEY. WAF Worlds SHOULD BE A REPRESENTATIVE EVENT FOR THE SPORT OF ARMWRESTLING AND ITS SUPPORTERS.

"PAL has pullers who are or have been WAF World champs competing against each other, UAL has a small pool of pullers who can even compete for that UAL World title, go where everyone that qualifies from each country goes for that World title.... " YES, BUT HOW LONG HAS THE UAL BEEN ON THE ARMWRESTLING MAP AND HOW LONG HAS PAL BEEN ON IT? ALSO, LOOK AT THE PROGRESS THE UAL HAS MADE IN SUCH A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME... AND REMEMBER... THOSE WHO WILL HAVE CONTRACTS WITH TV WILL BE MAJOR PLAYERS IN ARMWRESTLING. TV IS KEY TO RECOUPING INVESTED MONEY AND THE WAY TO POTENTIAL PROFITS. WHICH PLACE IS THE BEST FOR A CAREER AND MAKING MONEY IN SPORT? I WILL TELL YOU: THE COUNTRY’S NAME IS THE U.S. THIS IS WHY PAL OPENED AN OFFICE IN LAS VEGAS, AND MADE SOME TV DEALS.

"To me winning cash for your title doesn't make you any better of a World champ." YOU SHOULD ASK YOUSELF FIRST: WHO IS OR SHOULD BE A CHAMP? FOR ME A CHAMPION IN SPORT IS SOMEONE WHO WINS A TITLE BY DEFEATING ALL OF HIS OPPONENTS ONE AFTER ANOTHER UNTIIL HE BEATS THEM ALL. WAF MULTIPE CHAMP IN THE +110KG CATEGORY WAS ANDREY PUSHKAR. HAVE YOU SEEN HIS MATCH AGAINST DEVON LARRATT, WHO HAS NEVER WON A WAF GOLD MEDAL? HE HAS "ONLY" 4 BRONZE MEDALS FROM THE WAF WORLDS. SO WHO IN YOUR OPINION IS A CHAMP: ANDREY OR DEVON? DID YOU WATCH JANIS AMOLINS VS JASTIN BISHOP AT THE LAS VEGAS UAL EVENT? JANIS IS ALSO A MULTIPLE WAF WORLD CHAMP BUT HE LOST TO JUSTIN. (MESSAGE TO JANIS: DO NOT GET ME WRONG, YOU ARE ONE OF MY FAVORITE ARMWRESTLERS. I JUST NEEDED AS EXAMPLE).

MMA IS DEVEOPLING SO QUICKLY. DID YOU SEE HOW MANY EVENTS / ORGANIZATIONS HAVE THIS DISCIPLINE, AND HOW MANY OF THEM CALL THEIR OWN CHAMPS WORLD CHAMPIONS (LOOK AT THE TOP EVENTS HERE...)? OUT OF ALL OF THEM THE BEST OF COURSE IS THE UFC, WHICH IS THE BEST ORGANIZATION WITH THE LARGEST CONTRACTS... BUT OTHERS ALSO PROMOTE MMA.

IMO, THE GOLDEN ERA OF WAF AS THE MOST IMPORTANT EVENT IN THE ARMWRESTLING WORLD IS APROACHIING THE END AND FINALLY IT WILL BECOME AS IT ALWAYS SHOULD HAVE BEEN: THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS AMATEUR EVENT, WHICH WILL HOPEFULLY BE OUR SPORT’S FLAGSHIP EVENT IN NEGOTIATIONS WITH SPORT ACCORD OR THE OLYMPICS.

NOW WE SHOULD LOOK FORWARD MORE OPTIMISTICALLY. THERE IS A RACE BETWEEN THE TOP EVENT ORGANIZERS TO GET THE BEST POSITION IN THE PRO ARMWRESTLING WORLD, AND THIS RACE CAN ONLY BRING MORE GOOD THINGS FOR OUR SPORT AND THE ATHLETES. SO GUYS... STOP COMPLAINING OR SAYING HOW IT SHOULD BE... NOW YOU HAVE THE UAL, ARM WARS, PAL, GAME OF ARMS AND A FEW MORE EVENTS... START SUPPORTING THEM. THE FUTURE OF ARMWRESTLING IS BRIGHTER THAN EVER BEFORE.